Contents

The company was founded in 1864, and was originally a gun maker and later in the 19tyh century moved into manufacturing bicycles. They later started manufacture of powered vehicles in the 1920s. The first tractor related vehicle was a Motor-plough built under license from Laurin & Clement of Czechoslovakia. the first tractor entered limited production in 1930, based on a Fordson design.[1]

Mass production of tractors started after World War II for Steyr, like many other European firms. The first post-war model was introduced in 1947. Like most manufactures of the time the early models were one and two cylinder engines.

By 1965 Steyr had built 160,000 tractors. and remained independent until 1996 when taken over by Case IH

Steyr has had a few different companies that have built tractors under license.

Basak - The largest licensee is based in Turkey. They built Steyr-licensed tractors from 1979 until 1996 under the Steyr name. In 1996, they began selling the same tractors under the Basak name. They have since established their own designs.[2]

Brahma-Steyr - Chandigarh, Punjab, India. Established in 1993 and produced tractors for government testing. Unknown if actual production tractors were ever built. It was set up to be 10% owned by Steyr/CNH.